Shayla Love
@shaylalove.bsky.social
đ€ 1957
đ„ 589
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shayla-love.com
reposted by
Shayla Love
The Atlantic
6 days ago
When a French village became an ALS hot spot, neurologists found that the patients consistently ate three foods. Shayla Love traveled there to investigate: Revisit the story from March, which became one of The Atlanticâs most-read articles of 2025:
theatln.tc/DpPZNmMC
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reposted by
Shayla Love
The New Yorker
13 days ago
The theory of cognitive dissonance has become ubiquitousâbut newly released documents seem to debunk the conceptâs foundational case study.
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
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Is Cognitive Dissonance Actually a Thing?
A foundational 1956 study of the concept, focussed on a U.F.O. doomsday cult, has been all but debunked by new research.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/is-cognitive-dissonance-actually-a-thing
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Over the summer, I went to a small Norwegian island where the sun doesn't set for weeks on end. I tried my best to live without the clock, and confront my relationship with time.
add a skeleton here at some point
11 days ago
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I wrote about new revelations about the influential study of a UFO doomsday group from the 1950s, and the book When Prophecy Fails. Come for the aliens, stay to ponder a difficult question: what do people do when they're confronted with inconsistency?
www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
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Is Cognitive Dissonance Actually a Thing?
A foundational 1956 study of the concept, focussed on a U.F.O. doomsday cult, has been all but debunked by new research.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-lede/is-cognitive-dissonance-actually-a-thing
15 days ago
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Starting this month, I'm a contributing writer at The Microdose! I'll be working on 5 Questions; my first asks Lucas Richert about Ritalin-assisted therapy.
themicrodose.substack.com/p/ritalin-as...
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Ritalin-assisted therapy: 5 Questions for historian of pharmacy Lucas Richert
Richert discusses the drugs that have made their way onto the therapistâs couch.
https://themicrodose.substack.com/p/ritalin-assisted-therapy-5-questions
about 2 months ago
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For
@us.theguardian.com
I wrote about "paradoxical insomnia"âthe strange experience of being asleep but not *knowing* you're asleep
add a skeleton here at some point
about 2 months ago
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For NatGeo I wrote about a neuroscientist trying to understand religious belief through the study of miracles
www.nationalgeographic.com/science/arti...
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Why are humans religious? Scientists are studying miracles to find out.
Miracles by definition defy science. But a new research effort attempts to understand what our experiences with them do to the brain.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/nueroscience-of-miracles-religion-science
about 2 months ago
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evergreen
www.vice.com/en/article/w...
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Why We Forget How Early It Gets Dark Every Year
There are reasons why seeing the afternoonâs darkness outside our windows feels freshly jarring and disorienting year after year.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/why-we-forget-how-early-it-gets-dark-every-year/
about 2 months ago
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I went to a pop-up city on an island off the coast of Honduras, which bills itself as a hub for fast-tracking longevity drugs. I wrote about what I found there for
@newrepublic.com
:
newrepublic.com/article/2011...
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The Island Where People Go to Cheat Death
In a pop-up city off the coast of Honduras, longevity startups are trying to fast-track anti-aging drugs. Is this the future of medical research?
https://newrepublic.com/article/201135/vitalia-roatan-honduras-island-cheat-death
2 months ago
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Our food may soon look very different if synthetic dyes are eliminated. For
@newyorker.com
I wrote about the hunt for stable natural colorants:
www.newyorker.com/science/elem...
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What We Eat May Never Look the Same
R.F.K., Jr., and the MAHA movement are at war with synthetic food dyes. Scientists are racing to reinvent the culinary color wheel.
https://www.newyorker.com/science/elements/what-we-eat-may-never-look-the-same
5 months ago
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Boris D Heifets
6 months ago
How much is the psychedelic experience influenced by what we see, hear and read? We made a way to measure it: The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire - developed by Audrey Evers, Chris Kelly,
@shaylalove.bsky.social
,
@tehseennoorani.bsky.social
, validated on >600 respondents. Link below:
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The Psychedelic Media Exposure Questionnaire: The development and validation of a new scale assessing psychedelic-related media exposure
Rationale: A reliable and valid instrument is needed to measure exposure to psychedelic-related media to examine the impact of media and expectations on outcomes in psychedelic clinical trials. Object...
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.30.25330536v1
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like âblue zones,â the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the
@newrepublic.com
:
newrepublic.com/article/1883...
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The Longevity Hot Spots That Werenât
Our culture has become obsessed with âblue zones,â where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
https://newrepublic.com/article/188317/blue-zones-longevity-hot-spots-myth
about 1 year ago
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Last December, I went to the French Alps to write about a medical mystery: In a small village, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with ALS, 10x higher than expected. This is the result of a decade-long investigation to try to understand why.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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An âImpossibleâ Disease Outbreak in the Alps
In one tiny town, more than a dozen people were diagnosed with the rare neurodegenerative disease ALS. Why?
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2025/03/als-outbreak-montchavin-mystery/682096/?gift=vaU_BsG0tnmqKgTvTtvqWsQl3Gx7JqxEFTvhYcubTRA&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
9 months ago
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Insects are small, they donât scream or bleed red, and many are considered pests; we tend to kill or mutilate them without pause. For
@newyorker.com
I wrote about the investigations into whether insects feel pain.
www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
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Do Insects Feel Pain?
Insects make up about forty per cent of living species, and we tend to kill them without pause. New research explores the possibility that they are sentient.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/do-insects-feel-pain
12 months ago
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reposted by
Shayla Love
The Brian Lehrer Show
about 1 year ago
On today's edition of '100 Years of 100 Things',
@shaylalove.bsky.social
connected the rise of RFK jr. to the wellness trends in American history.
www.wnyc.org/story/100-ye...
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100 Years of 100 Things: American Wellness | The Brian Lehrer Show | WNYC
As our centennial series continues, Shayla Love, a staff writer at The Atlantic, reviews the history of American interests in 'wellness.'
https://www.wnyc.org/story/100-years-of-100-things-american-wellness
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Anna Merlan
about 1 year ago
Nothing could be more delightful than reading
@shaylalove.bsky.social
on 19th century wellness influencers, and their spiritual successor, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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America Canât Break Its Wellness Habit
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fits into a long history of Americans who have waged battle against conventional medicine.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/12/rfk-wellness-history-debunking/680948/
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Our Goop-ified health world may seem fundamentally modern, but there is a direct line between todayâs wellness industry and the mid-1800s/ early 20th century. I wrote how the history of wellness is the best way to understand RFK Jr.'s appeal:
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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RFK Jr. Is Seducing America With Wellness
The best way to defuse Kennedyâs power is not by litigating his beliefs, but by understanding why the promise of being well has such lasting appeal.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/12/rfk-wellness-history-debunking/680948/?gift=vaU_BsG0tnmqKgTvTtvqWnaGh3HyWpXZA2HrZh5C6kY&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
about 1 year ago
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Earlier this year, I went from Iowa to central Sardinia to write about the efforts to make American cities more like âblue zones,â the now-controversial longevity hot spots. In the
@newrepublic.com
:
newrepublic.com/article/1883...
loading . . .
The Longevity Hot Spots That Werenât
Our culture has become obsessed with âblue zones,â where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
https://newrepublic.com/article/188317/blue-zones-longevity-hot-spots-myth
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Heather Souvaine Horn
about 1 year ago
If you, too, enjoy "is this grift?" stories that move from immortality desires to research errors to the Aspen Ideas Festival to our ambivalent relationship to modernity, you must MUST read this
@shaylalove.bsky.social
piece on the Blue Zones scandal. It's got it all.
newrepublic.com/article/1883...
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The Longevity Hot Spots That Werenât
Our culture has become obsessed with âblue zones,â where people purportedly live longer. But does the underlying research stand up to scrutiny?
https://newrepublic.com/article/188317/blue-zones-longevity-hot-spots-myth
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Mike Jay
about 1 year ago
I talked to
@shaylalove.bsky.social
about the paradox of non-psychedelic trips
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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Tripping on Nothing
New, non-hallucinogenic versions of psychedelics are blurring the boundaries of the drug trip.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/10/psychedelic-trip-high-hallucination-medicine/680314/?gift=vaU_BsG0tnmqKgTvTtvqWiGJy5UO9aVFcyU2voyytLw&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
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Modern psychedelic users and advocates, as a group, have no consistent political slant.
www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
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The Horseshoe Theory of Psychedelics
Donald Trumpâs 2024 campaign has cemented the rightâs romance with hallucinogenic drugs.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/11/psychedelics-maga-kennedy-trump/680479/
about 1 year ago
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I wrote about the growing overlap between psychedelic and longevity communities. As Bryan Johnson told me: âPsychedelics and longevity seem like long-lost best friends.â
www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...
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âLong-lost best friendsâ: the longevity movement finds psychedelics
The mental-health benefits of psychedelics are a draw for a growing community of people committed to reversing ageing
https://www.theguardian.com/wellness/2023/dec/08/longevity-psychedelics-mental-health-ageing
about 2 years ago
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Anna Merlan
about 2 years ago
I love this story by
@shaylalove.bsky.social
so much!!!!
www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a4...
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After a Breakup, I Needed a Game I Could Master
Suddenly unsure of both my luck and skill, I did the logical thing: learn to play the hardest card game of all time.
https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a46029017/breakup-bridge/
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Louise GlĂŒck đ€
about 2 years ago
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The sensation we call dizziness is a sort of general alarm system for the bodyâbut just as a fire alarm canât tell you where a fire is burning (or whether someone walked through the emergency exit by mistake), it doesnât necessarily tell you whatâs wrong.
www.newyorker.com/culture/anna...
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Why Dizziness Is Still a Mystery
Balance disorders like vertigo can be devastating for patientsâbut theyâre often invisible to the doctors who treat them.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-inquiry/why-dizziness-is-still-a-mystery
about 2 years ago
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reposted by
Shayla Love
Chaz Firestone
over 2 years ago
Them: "Oh so you're an academic, what are some of your sayings?" Me:
add a skeleton here at some point
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For Scientific American, I went to the Chelsea Physic Garden in Londonâa botanical haven filled with poisonous and medicinal plants đ±đżđȘŽ
open.spotify.com/episode/0iIt...
over 2 years ago
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Neurologist Harold Wolff on "migraine personality" and fashion choices: "Among the men polished shoes, pressed trousers and neatly arranged neckwear and hair were conspicuous. The women sometimes sacrificed a degree of attractiveness for austerity or severe neatness."
psyche.co/ideas/can-a-...
over 2 years ago
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favorite quotes from this piece: âHoles require a host...Doughnut holes require a doughnut."âChaz Firestone Absences (shadows, holes, silence) are "like the fruit flies of metaphysics."â Roy Sorensen
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-actually-hear-silence/
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Do We Actually ‘Hear’ Silence?
An experiment tests whether our ears hear silent intervals in the same way they hear music or noise
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/do-we-actually-hear-silence/
over 2 years ago
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I saw Freudâs favorite statue up close: Athena. When he fled from Vienna to London, he asked Maria Bonaparte to smuggle it out in her pocket. Freud referred to it as a symbol of womenâs penis envy, because she is missing her spear
over 2 years ago
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